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Re: high prices

well after doing some research i found out Clorox company has taken over much of the 3" chlorine tablets with their own lable and tubs i guess they dont make it for resellers thefore the price hike (monopoly)

Re: high prices

See this old post that describes the structure of the pool/spa chemical industry. Clorox has always made bleach but entered into the swimming pool and spa market by sharing its brand with KIK Custom Products in 2014 as described in this article and this press release. KIK Custom Products bought the BioLab pool/spa chemicals business from Chemtura in 2014 and Clorox partnered with them to get their brand to be used for other chlorine products including Trichlor tablets as Clorox seeks to broaden their chlorine products and brand more into the pool and spa market explicitly while KIK leverages the chlorine brand name to other pool and spa products (e.g. DE filter media, clarifiers, etc.).

KIK has many chlorine product brands, but it is not the only player in the market. The other large player is Lonza Group via their Arch Chemicals acquisition in 2011. Secondary players include Chem Lab Products with their Kem-Tek brand while Alden Leeds and N Jonas private label products.

So the bottom line is that there is enough competition especially between KIK/Biolab and Lonza/Arch that the Clorox branding is not any sort of takeover and such branding was launched in 2014 anyway.

So I don't see an across the board price jump from last year to this year from everyone. It seems selective, mostly Leslie's not offering their normal discount. Keep in mind that some of these very inexpensive Trichlor tabs are of lower quality and are not compressed as well so can crack more easily or dissolve at different rates.

Re: high prices

Leslie's still has their tabs on sale frequently. With the right mailers and stacking of promotions, you can get their 35 lbs pail for $64.95 pretty much all the time. At the beginning of the season, I was able to get it for $45.96. It required me to use a mailer that had the chlorine special priced at $69.95, then I had a 20% off my entire purchase of over $100, and then there was $10 in kickbacks through their rewards program. If you are a super shopper, you can find these chemicals for cheap.

Re: high prices

I have a sand filter and a pool that just naturally drifts down on CYA. I can't really explain it because I really don't think I get much water replacement by the backwashing, but I lose right around 10 ppm on the CYA per month. It's not leaks either because I've done the bucket test like three times and watch my water bill like a hawk. So I use my tabs. It's part of the reason I had trouble with people being told to drain to get their CYA down because mine drifts down on it's own, I thought everyone's did.